Irish Chaplaincy condemns eviction of Traveller community

The Irish Chaplaincy in Britain(ICB) has condemned the decision of Basildon Council to serve eviction notices on the residents of the Dale Farm Irish Travellers community in Essex.

Basildon council have given the ninety or so families on the site until 31 August to leave their homes, or face the ordeal of eviction.

Joe Boyce of the ICB said: "Dale Farm residents have always been willing to leave their land peacefully if viable alternative plots where made available which would enable them to rebuild their homes while maintaining their community. The council will spend an estimated 18.2 million to evict but has never made any serious attempt to work with the community to find a sensible solution to the real accommodation needs of the community ."

Philomena Cullen, Director of the ICB added: "This news is a terrible blow to the Traveller families, who have always been open to peacefully leaving Dale Farm site, provided that they had an alternative site that they could legally go to. Now we are in the situation where hundreds of people, many of these children and older people, will be once more forced onto the road. These families who will now have their lives disrupted, their livelihoods jeopardised and forced into the inevitable cycle of constantly being moved on. Even in crude financial terms, there is no logic in the council's decision - it will cost them more to evict than it would do to identify a legal place for Travellers to live."

The residents have been given until the 31st of August to leave the land which they legally own and have lived peacefully on for a decade.

The ICB are monitoring the situation and will be acting as legal observers if the eviction goes ahead.

For more information on the ICB go to: www.irishchaplaincy.org.uk/